Dave’s RV-7A Building Log

I finally finished off the pop rivets on the canopy frame. The little 3/8″ spacers I made worked great. The CS4-4 rivets are probably not long enough, but they’ll hold fine for this situation. I’ve read on other builder logs that Van’s even recommends just putting a dummy rivet in those holes.

Next up was to verify that the canopy clears the forward skin before I get the plexiglass installed permanently. The frame is much easier to handle without the extra weight. I installed the frame on the fuselage and had Julie slowly open the canopy while I held down the front skin (can’t use clecos since they get in the way). Lots of interference. I did a combination of sanding/beveling/bending the middle front edge of the canopy skin and the aft edge of the top skin. After several iterations, it cleared nicely.

I’m still not super happy about the gap between the two skins. Reading other logs, builders talk about putting a seal of some sort in there, but I’m not sure what if anything people actually end up doing. It seems to me that a strategically placed strip of 0.018 or 0.012 (if that exists) would be enough to help seal/cover the gap. We’ll see when I get around to riveting down the front top skin.

These pictures show the left side. The gap on the right side is a little better. It would totally not be a problem if it wasn’t for the cutouts in the bulkhead flange that allow it follow the curve. The second picture also shows that I scuffed the area that I’m going to paint flat black for the glare shield.

I started off by using the spacers I made to pop-rivet down the canopy skin to the aft tube of the frame at the outboard ends. 3 of the spacers on each side worked great, but the 4th wasn’t thick enough. Back to the band saw. I made two new spacers (one for each side) out of .250 material, thinning it down to 3/16″, and then painting.

Julie helped me heft the bubble back onto the frame to mark the outline on the front skin. I’ll paint a flat black inside that line for the glare shield.

I also worked on assembling the parts I made for the ELT mount. I used countersunk rivets to attach the frame to the stringers at the front and back, and also to attach the clamp band to the frame. I then riveted the angles at each end of the stringers. Making this mount has been a pain, but it’s going to work out great.

I felt much better by evening-time and Julie was willing to help out. I needed help bucking a couple of the rivets. Actually, we back riveted the 4 outermost reinforcement-frame-skin rivets. Julie held the steel plate against the skin, and I back-riveted from the inside. Worked out great. There are just a couple of blind rivets to pull and the skin will be officially, completely attached.

I also sprayed some primer on the ELT mount angles that I made.

I wasn’t feeling so hot last night and today. I took the day off work and crashed on the couch with the dog. But then the FedEx Freight truck pulled up to the door. I ordered the firewall forward kit exactly a week ago.

Of course I had to open the box and start tinkering with the parts. This is definitely the coolest kit so far, exhaust pipes, prop governor, alternator, control cables, fuel and oil hoses. Very cool stuff.

I figured I might as well inventory the kit since I was examining everything anyway. I also studied the plans a bit. There are drawings for the firewall pentrations, cabin heat routing, fuel and oil hoses, and more. It looks fairly detailed.

After consulting the “ELT mount” thread in the VansAirForce Forum, I decided on a different approach for the ELT mount. Instead, I’m going to use some simple angles stretching between the baggage ribs like Jeff (a.k.a. RV_7A) did. I thought about mounting it to the back side of the cover like Mike Shipper, but was worried that it wouldn’t be sturdy enough. I guess I didn’t take a picture, but I will when it’s done.

I also spent a ridiculous amount of time fabricating these stupid little spacers for the front of the canopy frame.

And most significantly, I riveted the reinforcement pieces into the canopy frame and riveted on the aft part of the frame. I left a few rivets for later when Julie can help again. This thing feels much more solid now.

One last thing I almost forgot. I bought some West Systems resin and hardener during the week. I played around with that stuff a little. Julie asked me to fix a tile that fell off the fireplace surround. Well, I think I’ll just use some marine epoxy on that!!

Julie helped me a bit and we hammered out the difficult rivets on the canopy frame. They were right along the front row, a few rivets in on each side. I used my most narrow bucking bar to get in there. After that, I touched up the paint in a few places where it got bunged up from riveting.

While the paint was drying, I started to figure out the ELT mount. I made this complicated contraption, which I was having extreme trouble getting to fit in the limited space under the baggage compartment floors. (I found a better way later.)